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Review by rnikischer 
UPDATED: 65 days ago
member for 6.9 years, 285 visits, last login: 2 days ago
 Ottawa,La Salle,IL
 $32 per month
 about 5 days
 "Excellent Call Quality"
 "Sneaky Price Increases"
 "Rock Solid Connection"
| Web-site:
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(ratings match consensus)
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August 12, 2009
I began shopping around for another company after Vonage's last price increase. I had no problem with their service for the many years I had them, however I was getting fed up with their price increases. I finally decided to switch over to VOIPO after having a conversation with Tim. I like the price and features they have to offer and I am not the least bit sorry I left Vonage. It was a good run but it was time to move on. I will give a review of VOIPO in the next few weeks after I have had their service for a few months.
April 20, 2009
Well despite all the doomsday prophecies regarding Vonage they are still providing me service and I haven't had a single issue with them. Top notch call quality and reliability. I haven't had to call them for any reason so I can't comment on their technical support. Historically it has been pretty bad but like I said I haven't had the need to call them so I don't know if that is still a problem. I am using cable 6/512 speed connection which I am sure helps keep the service running well. I did try to use their outbound fax service once, which is supposed to be a free feature, but it did not work. All I kept getting were error messages and the fax did not get sent. Don't know if it was a fluke or if it happens all the time. Other than this 1 issue I would suggest to anyone that they consider using them.
October 23, 2007
I have experienced no outages or problems with the system since my last review and while others have reported problems with their service I have had absolutely none. I decided to stick out the lawsuits and talk of Vonage going under and I am not the least bit sorry that I did. I am a bit aggravated that they increase the prices little by little under the guise of "recovery fees" and that other nonsense. When I started out with the service it was $34.95 per month with a small tax I believe it wound up costing around $36.50 per month. They had 2 price decreases of $5.00 each but then began charging these other fees over time. Some I believe are legitimate - others are not. So todays cost is around $32.50 per month. Still cheaper than when I started and mostly competitive with the other major players in VOIP.
Since I haven't had any problems I can't say if there has been any improvements to their tech support - but judging by the other reviewers here I tend to believe they still stink. The problems is - who the heck really has good tech support anymore?
I increased their website ratings because it has been greatly improved and their interface is very user friendly.
I hope to continue reviews of Vonage for another 4+ years.
12/23/2005
I've been with Vonage since March, 2003 so I guess that speaks for itself. A few hiccups here and there but since last year I have had no major outage whatsoever. They have dropped the price by $10.00 per month since I joined them to remain competitive - and that was a plus too. I use Vonage as a second line for most of my outbound calls but I have kept my POTS line after stripping it down to the bare bones and use it mostly as an inbound line and to keep 911 reliable and simple.
I bumped them up since my last review in reliability. I dropped down a notch for website since it has been getting slower and/or more difficult to login to my account online. Tech support in the past has been something I purposely have avoided and the other day I had a question I needed to ask so I made the mistake of trying to get through on a business day during business hours. After 10 minutes of listening to Vonage commercials on hold I gave up so I kept my tech support rating the same - I think they still need to improve it.
Overall the service is well worth the money. Good quality, high reliability provided you don't need tech support and your not in a hurry to get into their website I'd still recommend them. I don't plan to switch to anyone else.
One note: I use the service over 6mb down and 256k up cable connection which has also proven to be pretty stable so I'am sure my experience with Vonage has a lot to do with having a good connection and ISP as well.
08/23/04 UPDATE:
After my recent glowing review and over a year and a half of reliable service I have to give Vonage a ding for their recent outages and slow customer service reply to my email.
While still fairly sound, the recent outages and response to my email (over a week) leaves my agitated. As a result I have downgraded their reliability from a 5 to a 3 and their tech support goes down to a 2.
I also wrote them and suggested they have someone join in here at BBR and show their customers that they support them - but I haven't seen anything yet.
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Review by robl27
UPDATED: 67 days ago
member for 1.4 years, 734 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Mary Esther,Okaloosa,FL
$25 per month (month by month)
about 20 days
"cheap price!"
"Customer Service is in the philippines (one reason why our economy is crap)"
"Solid Service"
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Went from Embarq to Cox Phone,they wanted $55.00 a month for 15 features and had to cut back, now with vonage world for @24.95.
Service has been solid, and with plenty of bandwidth on Cox Premier, I needed to step back on monthly costs.
Found out they have a 500 minute plan for less, may switch to that.
Service has been rock solid, made several calls to my best friend last night and been solid!
I'm sorry, Cox but your not as competitive as you should be in your phone service.
Some plans are in the works for travel, and vonage will be packed in suit case!
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Review by LetzBeReal
Posted: 74 days ago
member for 9.2 years, 2791 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Hermitage,Davidson,TN
$34 per month
about 3 days
"nice quality for the money and my price has not changed in 3 years"
"none"
"Better service than my previous (BellSouth-ATT)"
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I've been using Vonage for since July 06 and never had any issues. Call quality is great, can't really think of anything bad about the service. Much easier on the wallet than prior service supplier.
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 Review by sonarman
UPDATED: 76 days ago
member for 9 years, 2072 visits, last login: 1 days ago
Liverpool,Onondaga,NY
$33 per month (12 month contract)
about 8 days
"Transfer went as smooth as one can imagine"
"Web site could use an Update"
"So far, thrilled"
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I put the order in to transfer my number from Callvantage to Vonage. Looked at cable., but no features and more expensive. The transfer happened in 8 days. The vportal showed up and was live once I turned it one. During the test phased, I had an issue with Calls being dropped at the 7 minute mark every time. Called tech support, waited 1 minute on hold. They were very helpful and corrected the problem in 10 minutes. All and All, extremely happy so far.
Update: After 2 months, love the service. No issues to report. Have grown to love the vportal
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Review by sammydad1
UPDATED: 76 days ago
member for 7.4 years, 396 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Lake Worth,Palm Beach,FL
$24 per month
about 2 days
"Lower Price than previous phone service"
"If internet goes out, so goes phone"
"Am VERY happy overall since moving to Vonage !"
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Hi,
Have been using Vonage for some 6 months now, and all I can say is No more ATT.
Vonage service has been everything they advertised it so be. Voice quality is excellent. Up time has been excellent; my vonage box did hiccup one time for a couple hours, but just had to power off reset it.
Only con to mention is issue with VoIP in general in that if our ISP connection drops, no fone, but it just forwards to my cell anyhow so nothing is lost.
I save some 25.00 each month over our previous ATT service. I can save even more money if I decide to pay a full year in advance....but will wait on that until the tax rebate comes thru....
Sammydad1
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Review by millerzone
UPDATED: 78 days ago
member for 5.1 years, 81 visits, last login: 10 days ago
Kirkland,King,WA
$24 per month (2 month contract)
about 1 days
"Outstanding value, excellent call quality"
"None (was: 911 problems and outbound caller id not provided)"
"Loving it for several years already... (was: Recommended but watch out for 911 -- not ready as a POTS replacement)"
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UPDATE: It's more than 2.5 years later and I am still a Vonage customer. The 911 issues were ironed out and I no longer have a land line. I'm running Vonage over FiOS. Prepay for a year and so for $20/month we get unlimited calling around the world (very handy for my wife, who has family in Thailand).
UPDATE: Two problems have surfaced that would prevent me from getting rid of my land line. (a) I'm now noticing that my caller id info does not show correctly. When I call people, they do not see my name. (b) E911 is not working correctly -- despite the fact that 933 tells me that I am enabled for E911, my test 911 call went to the wrong call center and they did not get my address info. This is a serious problem! We'll see if Vonage can resolve it.
CompUSA has a special this week where the D-Link Vonage adapter is free after rebates, and then also they have *another* $100 rebate after you've been a customer for 60 days. So basically a free adapter with the activation fee and the first couple month of service free! I decided to try it.
After purchasing the adapter I went to Vonage's web site and activated service. That experience is very easy and about 15 minutes later I got an email with my new phone number.
Everything I read indicated that installation of the adapter should be a plug and play kind of experience but I need to place the box behind a SonicWALL TZ170 firewall. Vonage's web site is not all that clear about exactly what ports have to be opened and in which direction... so before I did *anything* I assigned the adapter's MAC address a static address in the DHCP server and then created a rule in the firewall to allow all traffic in both directions to the box. So, I can't comment on whether Vonage's FAQs are accurate or exactly what ports have to opened or whatever because I sidestepped that whole issue. I think this *could* potentially be a bit intimidating for the less technical among us.
The first time I plugged in the adapter it "just worked" and a few moments later I had a dial tone. I was surprised by the call quality -- in the (admittedly so far somewhat limited) usage I've experienced, there has been not a single sound artifact that would tip me off to the fact that I'm on VoIP. It sounds just like a land line. I'm running over Comcast internet.
So far I am very impressed with Vonage.
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 Review by semotus
UPDATED: 79 days ago
member for 6.2 years, 68 visits, last login: 41 days ago
Plano,Collin,TX
$32 per month
about 1 days
"Reliability, Cost"
"Can't block specific numbers, additional fees"
"Good price, reliable service."
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I've been a Vonage customer for a few years now and still really love the service.
I purchased the adapter at BB, installed the device and setup service in just a few minutes.
Initially I had some call quality issues which were due entirely to my ISP, once I switched to FIOS those issues were resolved and my Vonage service has been rock solid ever since.
Vonage has provided almost all of the options and services I need at a reasonable cost other than the ability to block calls from specific numbers which they tell me is in the works.
Good luck finding another phone company that provides so many features and such a wide area of coverage for the price. Verizon has tried repeatedly to get me to bundle my phone with the rest of my services but by their own admission they can't even come close.
Based on my own personal experience I've recommended the service to others and they've been very pleased. Give it a try and I think you will be pleased with both the service and the cost.
Update: Vonage has recently instituted new fees. See this thread:
»Vonage price increase
To be fair, many companies use these hidden fees in order to hide total cost in their advertisements all the time. Regardless I like many people absolutely despise this kind of underhanded method to impose rate increases. I've been very happy to support Vonage for several years as an alternative to the current well entrenched and over priced Telco industry but they are pushing their luck. As they seem to become more and more like the companies I fled from I'm now seriously considering other VOIP services.
Call quality is still excellent for me personally and value for the dollar is still reasonably good. But the recent rate hikes, "regulatory fees" and complaints from members here on BBR of difficulty canceling accounts has caused me to be much less enthusiastic about recommending Vonage.
Update: 9.29.09
Well after 5 years with Vonage I've left for Ooma and the possibility of saving a chunk of change.
Rates continued to rise ever closer to standard Telco rates and the feature list had grown rather stale. The Vonage World plan at $24.99 (actually $32.99 with fees) was more than I wanted to pay monthly since all of our phone calls are conducted via Blackberries these days and the Basic 500 plan wasn't enough with two daughters in the house. Other than adding some additional countries to the calling plan the feature list has remained stagnant for the entire 5 years, including a lack of the much requested number block feature which was promised for implementation repeatedly. Would have really come in handy for all of those, "Your auto warranty is about to expire" calls.
Cancellation of service was not easy. They begged, they pleaded, they interrogated. The whole process took a painful 15-20 minutes. Truth be told I was actually feeling a little sorry for them.
All that being said, the Vonage service was rock solid. Call quality was excellent, never any down time and I never once had to call CS for a technical issue. If their feature set and calling plans fit your lifestyle I'd highly recommend Vonage.
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 Review by tglea
UPDATED: 79 days ago
member for 2.3 years, 161 visits, last login: 79 days ago
Valley,Douglas,NE
$32 per month
"Great sound, take it anywhere"
"Can be a little difficult getting cust service to understand your problem or needs"
"I'll be with them until they die"
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I've been a customer for almost 4 years and it has been great. Although the end monthly price keeps going up with added taxes and fees, you'll never find POTS service with all the included features, long distance and international long distance for the same price as Vonage. I used the service for over 2 years from Mexico and everything worked fine. If there was a problem, it was do to my ISP there. Never had any issues while using it with Cox here in the USA. With the new World Plan, it's an unbelievable value if you call internationally. I can now call the entire country of Mexico(landlines) with no additional LD charges.
I've found that the people that complain about bad Vonage service have zero knowledge about networking or how their equipment works. I've never had a problem that I could blame on Vonage. All the problems are usually do to customer equipment, ISPs or lack of general knowledge by the user.
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 Review by mb
UPDATED: 83 days ago
member for 9.3 years, 4695 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Washington,Warren,NJ
$33 per month (24 month contract)
"One of the largest and oldest VoIP providers"
"More costly than others"
"Recent call reliability issues"
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Update 9/7/09 I have disconnected service with Vonage and ported my number over to CallCentric. The cancellation process went very smoothly and there were no disconnection fees. You get a lot of bang for the buck with Vonage, but recent call quality/reliability issues forced my hand.
Update 8/26/09 Over the past couple of months Vonage's quality/reliability has dropped. There have been several incidences of calls being dropped totally or complaints of not being heard. Several of these calls were of an important nature. My research suggests that it was not due to an ISP related issue. I have consequently dropped my ratings of call reliability and quality and I am pursuing service with provider.
Update 06/17/2008 I received a "phishing" type of call and contacted customer service in an attempt to identify the origination as the caller id info was obviously spoofed. The customer service number was quickly answered by an native agent in Holdmel NJ and after some brief research on his part, he quickly transfered me to an advanced tech support agent also in Holmdel. The Advanced Tech Support agent checked a variety of tools that he had available but was only able to determine that the call originated in Costa Rica. What a turn around in Customer Service quality. I'm impressed.
Update 01/16/2008 I needed to contact tech support several times this past week for issues involving voicemail waiting indicator light reliability, a subsequent audio issue, and then to have my device returned to default settings after a variety of changes by overseas support. A very long and arduos process. The tech support still stinks, with the Advanced Services Group being difficult to contact but effective.
Update 10/7/2007 Vonage continues to be rock a solid performer with high sound quality. I am aware of the legal issues they are facing, but I will stick with them until the end if it comes.
Update 5/30/2007 I have ported my number back to Vonage from Viatalk. In my opinion, although pricey, Vonage meets my needs best.
Update 5/18/2007 I have decided that for me, Vonage in fact supplies the highest quality service. I have decided to return as a customer and opened a new account. I have been pleasantly surprised in that the 4 telephone contacts that I have had have all been with support personnel here in New Jersey.
Update 5/2/2007 The port to ViaTalk was completed today and the Vonage account was canceled. The cancellation was handled by an efficient and pleasant customer service representative in Holmdel NJ. The $42 disconnect fee was charged as expected. My only issue with Vonage was uncertainty about their future and concern over retaining my long time telephone number.
Update 04/21/2007 I have been very satisfied with Vonage. Unfortunately, with all of the negative publicity and uncertainty surrounding their future, I have decided to port my number and use ViaTalk as my VOIP provider. I wish Vonage well in their battle with Verizon and may be back someday if things stabilize
Update 02/27/07 Voice quality went down the tubes yesterday. A call to a heavily accented and hard to understand tech support agent resulted in changes to my provisioning which did not help. Later in the evening, I noticed a thread here involving the issue suggesting it was widespread. I was able to make contact with a tech here in good old NJ later in the evening who returned my settings to their defaults and sound quality returned at once.
Initial review: I just moved my Verizon DSL service to a "dry loop" and decided to give VoIP phone service a try.
Comparing information about the various providers from the forums here at BroadbandReports.com did not provide me with a clear preference. I went to the local Circuit City and picked up a Linksys/Vonage PAPv2 telephone adapter. It came with 2 rebates that totalled $100. I returned home and signed up for service that included one free month, and then installed the device.
For the next 5 hours the power light on the adapter was blinking 3 times a second, an indication that it was obtaining it's configuration from Vonage. My first 3 calls to customer support over that period of time ended up overseas and proved fruitless. After the usual scripted exchanges, I was told that an outage in the Northeast US caused my issue and was told to power cycle the device. This didn't work. My last call ended up in the good old US of A and the tech explained that he could see the device and walked me through a hardware reset. Within 5 seconds I had service.
Service has been rock solid since with good sound quality. The web based features are quite impressive to someone who grew up using a rotary dial phone mounted to the kitchen wall.
Updates to follow
Followup comments:  Hackster3
join:2002-05-07
Richmond Hill, NY
| Vonage clarity. I like this here Vonage! I am an old Verizon subscriber for phone service. Even with unlimited local calling, my bills were still $130-$140 per month. Too much for me! So I switched over to Vonage. The only time I have trouble is on the weekends when everyone and their mother are using their computers or phones! I am breaking up, on the weekends that is. Everyone in the house has a cell plan with weekends free, so it works out just great! | |
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mat
| Re: Vonage - False Advertisement Although I understand your frustration all of the VOIP companies advertise Unlimited Calling but have a limit to check if its purely residential usage or Business usage. Most of the companies have high limit like 5000, while VOIPO has 3000 (1500 incoming and 1500 outgoing), although its a soft limit. According to their rep, the reason is because they have only seen 400 minutes of usage for a residential account. But at least they say that its a soft limit and they wont force you to upgrade the first time you cross that limit and all that.
I think the only way to keep up with these kind of limit is to keep checking your account usage. | |
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patelmay
@cargill.com
| Such advirtisements are always mis-leading but if oyu read terms and conditions carefully of any service provider, you will know that such details are always covered.
I just subscribed for Vonage and while going through terms and condition, I found this which is consistent with what you have mentioned.
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Inconsistent with Normal Use.
If you use the service or the device in a way that is inconsistent with the normal use for your service or plan, you will be required, at Vonage's sole discretion, to pay the rates for the service or plan that would apply to the way you used the service or device, or terminate the plan. For example, if you subscribe to one of our residential service plans, and your usage is inconsistent with normal residential use, you may thereafter be required to pay our applicable, higher rates for commercial service for all periods in which your use of our service or the device was inconsistent with normal residential use. Unlimited voice services are provided primarily for continuous live dialog between two individuals. Lack of continuous dialog activity, unusual call patterns, excessive numbers and/or consistent excessive usage (i.e., More than 5,000 minutes per line per month for unlimited residential calling and/or more than 10,000 minutes per line per month for unlimited small business calling), will be considered indicators that use may be inconsistent with normal use, or that impermissible use may be occurring and may trigger an account review by us. The creation or use of related multiple accounts or excessive residential lines to circumvent these levels shall also be considered indicators that use of the service may be inconsistent with normal use for the subscribed monthly plan(s) and may trigger an account review by Vonage. Failure to contact Vonage in response to its notifications and/or failure to promptly correct usage activity to conform to normal use will result, in Vonage's sole discretion, in immediate mandatory transfer to another appropriate plan, suspension or termination of service. You acknowledge that if your service is terminated under this provision, you are subject to all applicable disconnection and device or other rebate recovery charges. Vonage's right to terminate your account under Section 6.5(b) (with or no reason) is not limited by this provision. For a non-exhaustive list of examples of uses of our service inconsistent with normal residential use, click here.
Commercial, not-for profit, governmental use or other similar use
The use of the service at a multi-residential address for more than one single residence; or
The use of the service by others who do not reside in your personal residence primarily by reason of its unlimited feature
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Hope this helps. | |
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Review by AEKDB
UPDATED: 86 days ago
member for 5.7 years, 1984 visits, last login: a few hours ago
Towson,Baltimore,MD
$30 per month
about 15 days
"Pretty Good Service"
"Lose connection periodically....land line sounded better. Lack of reg 911 is a concern."
"Good way to save money...hope never REALLY need 911"
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Overall happy...using Linksys router, works pretty well and is a lot cheaper then the landline.
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Vonage - False Advertisement